Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Demagogue (UK, 1997)

(A version of this review appeared in a print copy of the excellent film magazine Shock Cinema some half-dozen years ago. If you don’t know the magazine, you should. For more info on Shock Cinema, check out their homepage).

A wonderfully entertaining, fully tasteless, over-the-top and bloody farce that (due to budget limitations) never reaches the excesses of vintage Peter Jackson, but never the less does its best at trying. The story is consistently inane, with regular fountains of blood gushing everywhere, everything being in such excess that one can’t help but laugh—even if the English accents sported by more than one actor occasionally makes the verbal jokes and word games impossible to understand. Within the first five minutes of the Demagogue, one knows that what lies ahead is going to be a full scale barrage of tasteless, laughable multi-violence as one is promptly served a gross out scene of a blood spurting cesarean section birth of the mutant baby performed with a butcher knife. The baby is the result of genetic experimentation by a cult out to contact other worlds, who hope to use the mutant’s super intelligence for intergalactic communication. DJ and private detective Jason Bason, hired by two obnoxious old farts, infiltrates the cult in order to locate and save the couple’s beautiful daughter, who Jason falls in love with. The leader of the cult, Belladonna Kalashnikov, has the hots for Jason, and, much to the aggravation of her blood-thirsty, kill-happy psycho right-hand man, brings him into their secret compound to be their DJ. Meanwhile, the Doctor in charge of the genetic experimentation, in order to pay off some debts, reveals the value and location of the baby to a family of dreadlocked, ruthless and incompetent Italian gangsters. They choose to break into the compound at the same time as a group of military fighters, and they all get mistaken as invaders from Mars by the cult’s head of security, who has rigged the entire front garden of the compound with hidden weapons. And deep in the bowels of the compound, Jason, unmasked as a detective and tied to the girl he loves, hangs from the ceiling as all mutant-mistakes from past genetic experimentation break free from their prison cell....

Demagogue wears its supposed (according to IMDB) $4,800 budget on its sleeve, butthe obviousness of its lowly birth makes it all the more enjoyable. A ballistic ballet of blood and guts spurting from and onto faces and other body parts, nothing is sacred in Adam Trotman & Thmas Lawes’ ridiculously over the top approach to mixing inane science fiction with inept crime and multi-violent action. Heads get knocked off with baseball bats, legs get blown off by bullets, heads get split with hand shovels, bodies get blown up by flying missiles, hippie cultists get cannibalized by mutants, dads get spikes through their foreheads—Demagogue is a true gore hounds feast (providing the gore hound has a humor): a creative, individualistic low budget piece of unapologetic trash in which everyone not just dies, but dies gushing like a fountain. The only thing that is a greater shame than that Trotman & Lawes never made another feature length film after this one is that this one is so hard to find. It seems never to have even made it to DVD.

Note:

Hi there. This blog is about obscure, trashy, fun, bad and fabulous films. Therefore, this blog is likely to contain "adult" material such as images of blood, guts, nekkid wimin and even — GASP! — penis. If you are offended by the sight of such things, we advise you leave this blog and go here instead.Please be forewarned that A Wasted Life, as life is apt to be, may not be suitable for under-age readers and/or workplace viewing. Reader discretion is advised.Furthermore, we take no responsibility for any of the links found on this blog. So if you click on one, you take full responsibility for your decision to do so no matter whether you are suddenly confronted by Donald Duck, clean-shaven clinical detail, gushing salamis, Trojans from Russia or whatever.Feel free to use anything found on this blog – our only contingency is that you should give proper credit and (if possible) add a link to A Wasted Life.Peace, love and Bobby Sherman.

About Me

An accidental ex-pat that has enjoyed the city of Berlin for over 30 years shares his extensive knowledge and personal opinions on the films that he has and still is wasting his life on by watching.
For more insight into his fabulously normal life, choose one of the blogs below that fits the topic you want to read about. And remember: it's not life that sucks, it's your life that sucks.

LOLOL funny shit! really enjoyed this. i just downloaded this movie and now I wonder — why the heck did i waste my bandwith. Ur comments are funny as hell. Do u have any comments on the recent beowulf and grendel flicks? [Anonymous (rajivness@gmail.com) @ Beowulf]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.[Graciela @ Come Back, Charleston Blue]